Should I stay or should I go? Founder’s decision to exit from an entrepreneurial venture during an industrial crisis

We investigate if while experiencing an intensely negative industry-specific shock, skilled entrepreneurs may decide to leave the firm they founded, whereas founders who are less endowed with human capital may decide to continue their activity. Developing a stylised theoretical framework of the issue intended to derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for the emergence of this phenomenon, this study explores its occurrence in Italy during the ICT industry crisis from early 2000–2003 by analysing the individual stay/leave decision of a sample of 201 founders of 79 start-ups operating in the ICT services market.